Tuesday, 24 November 2009

I first had the pleasure of meeting Benthe a couple of years ago when I was invited to look around her beautiful period apartment.

She was at this time getting ready to finish her ‘kunst akademi' degree in Sculpture. What struck me was how creative she is, as everywhere I looked there was evidence of Artistic endeavours, from ceramics to paintings, mixed media sculptures and handmade paper lamps. The pale backdrop and period details of her amazing apartment show off the work to its best advantage and made me feel very inspired.

During a recent meeting I was delighted to discover that Benthe has also turned her hand to knitting and I’m now pleased to show you her gorgeous knitwear collection from her own designs. She only uses the best quality wool and silk and has many styles and colours to choose from. Items can be bought from her site www.artdress.dk

She also takes orders if your size is unavailable in the style or colours that you like. Prices start at an incredible 700 Danish kroner, which is approx. £80 English money and $140 American dollars, less for a child’s dress.

All her items are completely knitted by hand and are a beautiful quality. She will ship over seas; mail her on benthe@mail.dk for postal charges.

Benthe has now opened a gallery in her Atelier where she shows her own artwork alongside that of her husband Jens, also an accomplished painter, and also guest Artists.

She continues to develop her art and design in many disciplines, not allowing her self to be restricted to any one medium.

She says: “Creativity is a big part of my life and it has always been so, but it is only in these later years that I’ve been able to pursue my art full time and finish my academy education.”

“I’ve never been capable of choosing a discipline or material so I multi task in all forms of expression including painting, knitting, sculpture and ceramics, working with, plastics, clay, fabric, yarn, paint and paper. Of late I’ve begun working also with video and sound.”

“For me, the world is full of possibilities but I don’t know the ‘art’ of limiting myself, luckily”.

Sunday, 25 October 2009

It’s been a bit mad since I got back from my holidays, trying to catch up with everything. Isn’t it always like that? Still I had a great time in the UK, which involved a bit of work for my Interiors site, as well as pleasure. See http://www.boboho.com/ over the next few weeks for three new and amazingly different homes.

Here’s a sneak peak

Moving to the cityOnce we have a buyer for our home here, we hope to re-locate back to the UK or to a Danish city.

All this has got me thinking about new and glamorous surroundings. My home here is a lovely farmhouse so the laid back ‘shabby style’ that I have is perfectly suited to this type of building, which is just as well because most of my peeling paint furniture, from flea markets, or salvaged elsewhere, is looking very worn by now, but I still love it.

We may keep a small wooden summer house here in DK where all the stuff I currently have, will look great.

Regency apartmentIn the city however, I’m fancying myself in a period apartment, Regency preferably or something Victorian with large bay windows, and splendid proportions. This would do:

copyright: Abigaile AhernOr this one:And I love this:When I do get one………….I’ll have wallpaper, screen printed on sustainable paper, like this gorgeous design from Emma Molony:

Tuesday, 1 September 2009

Hi everyone, just a quick post to tell you that the two names, selected at random by my son Indigo on Friday night, are ;Vintgal Sweetsweetlife!

Well done to you two, and commiserations to everyone else. If you could mail me your address details and your preferred print by September 9th please. As I’m having a well earned holiday break then, until the end of September.

I’ll be having another giveaway once my following gets up to 200.

Back soon with a new post. Best Wishes to you all, enjoy what’s left of the summer.

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Hello and thanks, to those of you that continue to support my blog and I’m very happy to have all you new comers. Good luck to you all for the draw on Friday to win one of my ‘fairy tale’ prints.

This post I would like to share with you, the beautiful jewellery of designer Katie Weiner. Photographed once again by my lovely design friend Benji, thanks Benji, you’re a star! It’s Benji’s birthday party on Thursday, Happy Birthday Ben!

Katie WeinerKatie is an established Jewellery Designer. When Katie Weiner married two years ago, she wanted to wear contemporary pieces that reflected her own style; incorporating treasured heir looms, passed down from her Grand mother, with much loved finds of her own. The result was an enchanting collection of melded vintage treasures with a contemporary bohemian edge. For the Brighton festival she created a unique collection of necklaces and earrings bringing these ideas together ­ so individual she can hardly bare to part with them, each one a personal favourite.

Katie is undertaking commissions transforming treasured pieces, be they old dusty brooches, hat-pins or lonely earrings which need bringing back to life as a necklaces.

What pieces do you have rolling around the bottom of your jewellery box that could be idolised and remarked upon once more”?

O’h they’re so lovely I feel like I’ve been transported back in time! Finding it difficult to choose between them, I can see how they must be very hard to give up Katie. Displayed beautifully as well with all those gorgeous cups and bottles.

Well, I don’t know about you but I’m already looking to see what I have knocking around!

Tuesday, 4 August 2009

This post I thought I’d share with you, a couple of pictures from the exhibition in our Gallery here in Denmark. Nice to see some familiar faces from our mailing list and some new customers. I was pleased that so many showed keen interest in my lamps :-)

Now the exhibitions coming to an end and I’m looking forward to turning the Gallery space back into a photography studio during the winter, have lots of new ideas for my existing project about ‘re-telling tales’, which involves photographic illustrations of childhood themes or memories and also well loved stories.

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Feeling more inspired than I have for a while, right now! Which is good. Probably because I’m looking for a holiday apartment to rent on the South coast of England, anyone know of a good one? It’s been a hard choice this year as there are many places I would like to visit but because I live in Denmark for now and am missing my home country more than ever, my choice is to be there. We’ll probably do a Brighton trip with a bit of surrounding areas thrown in as Brighton is one of my favourite cities in Europe and certainly the best in the UK in my mind.It’s been a tough one though, with many of you taunting me with your recent pics of Cornwall and the lake district! That’s what I love about the UK, it’s very diverse, you can have lakes and mountains one minute, and a few hours later palm trees and white sand beaches! Casper JamesThis post I’d like to share some of my favourite art, design and all things vintage.Kicking off with Brighton of course!! Those of you familiar with it will know that in the ‘North Laines’ area [shoppers paradise] there is an antique emporium, which is like a load of vintage and retro stalls under one roof. In there is a guy with great style called Casper James.

My lovely interior designer friend Ben, went along to meet him and photograph the stall for me, thanks Benji!

Look at the great range of stuff he sells! He customizes some of the pieces too, to give them a great new look. Casper, if you’re reading this, thank you and I’ll be visiting and no doubt purchasing when I’m in Brighton.

See Caspers flickr sitehere which also features some of his fantastic colourful artwork, very retro in style.

Zoe RubensAnother favourite is Sculptor Zoe Rubens, who exhibited at our Gallery a couple of years ago. Zoe’s work is incredible, I think. She uses recycled pieces of metal to create the most gorgeous sculptures using techniques such as welding and soldering.

She exhibits regularly at a couple of London galleries as well as throughout the UK and can also work to commission.

Many pieces incorporate ceramic details, also made by Zoe and some are narrative based, using references to past stories or historical/ mythical beings.

She has a flikr site and a web site where you can view more of her work and see that she is also an accomplished print maker. Look at these lovely paper works. ‘I’m feeling really humble now Zoe, you are so talented’!

Nanna AskLast but not least, one of my favourite Artists, Nanna Ask from Denmark. I have this painting of hers, which we purchased the last time she exhibited here, a few years on, I still love its child like simplicity and humorous depiction. Its called ‘Repair Me’ directly translated, but I guess ‘make me better’?

She has a website, where you can read all about her and see many more paintings including an archive section where everything, including sold works are listed.

Denmark has a history of naïve painters and I think Nanna is one of the best contemporary naïve painters here in DK. The titles of her works touch a chord in you as they have a familiarity for all of us, especially those with children.

I like how she incorporates vintage wallpapers into her paintings and how she creates textures using acrylic, oil bars, crayons and pens.

Well, that’s all for now, hope you’re feeling inspired, I’ll be back next week to show you some pictures from the exhibition. Have a great and sunny week!

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine right now. I’m glad to say it has finally returned to Denmark after a very rainy June.

I have a couple of items of my own work to show you, thought I’d never get finished as I’ve been so far behind, but I’m happy with the results.

ChandelierThe chandelier will form part of a collaborative July exhibition at our Gallery. Most of the Artists exhibiting use vintage or recycle in some way; it’s very different from other stuff we’ve shown in the Gallery, so it may provoke some interesting reactions from the visiting Danes and foreign tourists.

I found this brass chandelier in a charity shop, looking like it had seen better days. I’ve used old quilt fabrics; I find that they have a lovely faded quality that I like. Went the whole hog on this one and decided to wrap the links of the chain with embroidery cotton and wool to tie the colours together. The only new item I’ve used are the wooden balls which again I wrapped to form decoration where you would normally have crystals on a glass chandelier. Added some paper mache flowers, some bias binding and some paint for the candlestick parts and ‘Voila’!

I secretly want to keep this one but I always feel like that when I finish a piece! I must get a grip, and sell it!

LampThe lamp I’ve made for my own home using vintage silks I’ve had for many years.

I think it’s quite a fun piece now with the ribbons and the wrapping, and the light has a really warm tone when it’s on, so will be nice for cosy evenings.

I’m still playing around with ideas for the trimming, hence the pinned lace doilies!

Bowls

Had some fun making some paper bowls last week, wanted a nostalgic feel so used vintage books and magazines with colours and text that was appropriate for the ‘feel’ of them.

Have just started a larger bowl to exhibit along with these and am experimenting with stitching some of them too.

Thanks everyone for continuing to follow my blog and for the lovely and sometimes funny comments you leave, they make me smile.

I’ll be back soon with some of my favourites in Art, Design and Vintage.

About Me

I am a mixed media Artist, working with recycled furniture and accessories, textiles, papier mache, painting, collage and print to produce interior objects, lighting and surface pattern designs.
I am completely addicted to vintage things and fabric in particular which I hoard in my cupboard upstairs, not daring to fetch it all out for fear that it will fill the room!!